Basic and Powerful Self-Coaching Strategies for Sales Representatives

We know (you and me), that in sales, almost everything is about execution. That selling, like it or not, is how you execute your sales repertoire in the right moment with the right person in the right place. Now, I have been a sales coach for years and what I haven't seen much, is a development for self-coaching strategies. Here I'm going to present four that have been incredible useful for most of my clients.

Coaching and Self-coaching is about receiving feedback from a different perspective

Have you seen NFL games? If you have, you might have seen some players take a look to photographs of videos to see themselves how did they perform in such and such play, They see pictures or videos or how the play was executed and they see them to have a different perspective. This means that they could see and hear from outside, like if they were taking a step back, how they performed. Because you know, they can't see themselves and that's exactly what happens with sales representatives.  But before going there, just one thing about the NFL, they have coaches too and they help them to find out what went wrong with that interception. 

Now, in sales, sales representatives can't see themselves performing during a sales interview. They just can't. The only one that can see them is the client and they won't know if they did well just until the end of the sales interview. On the other side, there's no way that they can see photographs or videos of how did they perform in their interviews or have feedback about how they handle the sales interview. Only the manager can give them some feedback and we know that that just don't happen.

Self-coaching techniques

These are four very effective self-coaching techniques that most of my clients have used with excellent results: 

1. Record a real interview (and your cold calls) - Your smartphone is not only equipped with Facebook or WhatsApp. You can record some interviews and later listen to them. It's one of the best ways listen to yourself from a different perspective and change whatever you need to change in your execution. For better results, record three interviews in a lapse no longer that two weeks. It doesn't matter if you are a B2C or a B2B sales representative or if you're in the 3rd or final interview of a long sales process. It can be very helpful if you can listen, not only to the words and ideas and questions and answers but, if you can notice your tone of voice, the prospect's tone of voice, the pauses, the mood behind the prospect tone of voice and other voice characteristics, it will help a lot.

2. Ask a colleague or the sales manager of even a friend to go with you to a sales interview so he can later give you feedback. Don't worry, you can tell your client that he's your assistant or another sales rep in training. Have the feedback conversation right after the interview so the comments of your coach are fresh. Otherwise, they will be lost.

3. Record your presentation with a video camera: This is one of the best ways to find out how are you doing your presentations and what to correct, if needed.

4. Ask a friend or a sales manager to act as prospects and present to them: Your friend can give some feedback but it wont be specialized as the one that your sales manager can give but it will be helpful too. Your sales manager will give you precise feedback because he's able to see and listen what's missing in your presentation.

It's great if you can do this by yourself. You will notice aspects of your presentations that need to be fixed and some that are missing. However, it's highly recommended and you will get better results, IF somebody else can see and/or listen to your recordings and yourself. If the sales manager is not available ask to one of the best sales reps in your organizations. There are reasons why they are there.

Here are some key aspects that you might find helpful to notice, among many others:

• how you close the sale or manage to get the client to agree to move to the next phase of your sales process
• the type of questions you ask, the order and if the client answers them or not and what did you do if he didn't answer what you asked
• your tone, volume and speed of your voice and the client
• if your presentation is robotic, disorganized, improvised or made with confidence and power

Try them and I will be glad to hear how they worked for you. 

Ramon Ruiz